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Peter Robinson’s Asylum is a documentary made in 1972. From the very beginning, everything about the film is problematic and uncomfortable. Even now, just trying to summarize what the movie is about is challenging. It was filmed in a “home” where a variety of “disturbed” individuals live sequestered from society’s judgment. Both the words “home” and “disturbed” are the words the director of the home chooses to use. The director is Ronald David Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist, or anti-psychiatrist, who did not believe in conventional diagnoses, medications, or mental hospitals. His approach to mental illness was significant enough that I remember learning about him in college.

Lange actually accepted the term “asylum”, but used it in a literal manner. For him, an asylum was a place where people could find refuge from intolerance. In the film, Lange’s asylum plays host to both “disturbed” people as well as psychiatrists, but no distinction is made between the two. In fact, as the documentary is being filmed, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between them. They all live together as one group. Lange explains that the conventional relationship between a psychiatrist and patient and the resulting power dynamic is not conducive to a patient’s healing.

Bringing a camera into this asylum is full of ethical problems. Establishing consent to be filmed from individuals who society would deem schizophrenic is certainly a problem. The purpose of the film is another. Why bring a camera into such a place? The camera itself will undoubtedly agitate the residents, as it would anyone. What will the documenter be documenting? Is the film about the patients? Is it about Lange’s ideas? Is it about the success or failure of the home? Hopefully, it is not simply an effort to find some juicy drama for our entertainment.

Robinson made Asylum after making a short documentary about Lange’s ideas. Asylum does not necessarily support Lange, but Lange does open the film with an explanation of what he is trying to do.

Beyond the ethics of making the documentary, there are the ethics of what it depicts. Is such a home fair to the residents? The residents are allowed to seek therapy and/or medications outside the home, but within the home, they are treated not as patients, but as residents.

Much of the documentary surrounds a difficult and disruptive resident named David. David is loud and never stops reciting the disordered morass of words and ideas in his head. He can get aggressive and has hit several other residents. The film culminates in a group meeting where David is confronted by the residents and psychiatrists. They all try their best to be constructive, but David continues rambling about whatever comes into his mind. 

David is getting more agitated and begins to get up to leave. Someone who I am assuming is a psychiatrist tries to handle the situation. He explains to David, “If you can’t discuss with us, in a reasonable way, what to do about this, then it's gonna have to be decided in your absence.“ This does not seem fair. You are talking to someone who is schizophrenic. There is, of course, a wide spectrum of severity when it comes to schizophrenia, and even amongst acutely schizophrenic people, there are times of more or less lucidity. However, demanding that David be reasonable or face the consequences does not seem very empathetic or understanding.

The psychiatrist goes on to say, “Either we consider you responsible for your own actions, or we consider you not responsible for your own actions. Now if you’re not responsible for your own actions, you really can’t stay here. You’re not acting in an entirely sane fashion by the usual definition of sanity.” With these words, this progressive, revolutionary psychiatrist has just reinvented the mental hospital and the psychiatric system. He is relying on the traditional and conservative relationship he claims to be subverting. David must be reasonable, accountable, and in control of his actions in order to live in this house for “disturbed” people, or he will have to leave and probably be placed in an institution.

I am sympathetic to Lange’s concerns. I myself happen to have worked in two separate psychiatric institutions. One for children and one for adults. It’s a painful and frustrating job that I found so challenging, I ultimately changed career paths. The ethical binds that proliferate in such a place take their toll. It is a constant struggle to understand your role as caregiver in such an institution. Essentially, what keeps you grounded is an understanding that each patient is suffering. Regardless of whether I am sane or they are crazy, the fact remains that they need help. The question then arises: what is to be done with a person who does not conform to basic societal mores and does not seem to be suffering?